LAST NIGHT SAW THE DEATH AND DEVOURING OF THE FOURTH HARE, within a few metres of the previous three. This morning, in the heat, very small stinking remains covered in frantic flies. Flies and smell led me to the site instantly, just metres from the back door.

This within two years.

Ok, so this is a neighbourhood of dogs, none of which, however, I have ever seen on the loose, especially at night. Never seen a stray dog wandering, or a fox or dingo. Or a big goanna.

So questions: Why four deaths in one small area, over less than two years? Why near the house and next to parked cars? Were the hares brought there, or killed there? In each case the hares were mostly eaten in situ. Once only the feet and stomach remained. All bones were usually eaten. Once there were two hares’ remains next to eachother, suggesting that the site was, is chosen for devouring, not necessarily for killing.

Surely wild dog or dingo…….but how could either one avoid detection for so long, when it is obviously a regular visitor. Headlights have never picked one out; never a glimpse. No scats have been found on roadside or garden. (Obvious, full of claws and fur.)

I regularly see wild dogs and dingos, snakes and goannas, at my place in the ‘bush’; night and day: they are not so secretive as to permanently avoid detection.

A local pet, perhaps, wandering at night whilst its owner sleeps. This seems the most obvious culprit, and I can think of one. But wouldn’t it take the kills home to eat? And why choose this place for all kills? Bone-crunching is a noisy business; why haven’t I heard it? Last night, within ten metres of where I was sleeping, a big hare was eaten, bones, head and all, and |I heard nothing.

A camera would have to be set up and maintained for a year or more to catch the culprit. If the camera pointed in the right direction.

And why hares, only? Why not snakes, or bush-turkeys, or the dozens of tiny local yappers? These last are out loose night and day, most the size of a hare. A dingo wouldn’t hesitate, though yappers are mostly noise and fluff. There are plenty of yappers we could spare, gladly. Or wild ducks, which always are wandering about? (Though that would be a shame.)

I like the hares. They do eat stuff we plant for ourselves, but not much. They are mad, and entertaining, and picturesque. They are homeless from birth, and have no den, burrow, or nest. Their survival in Australia is miraculous. They cause little damage or harm, and offer much entertainment. They can out-run a greyhound in an open paddock. (Not on a confined track: no room for jinking.) There are never many of them about, unlike rabbits.

Help me find the hare-killer. How can it be done?